Italian experiment with leftovers

This weekend was more of ‘cleanup’; clearing up the old stock ... Had couple of bottles of red wine to finish and what better way to do that than to cook spaghetti in them !!! The inspiration came from one of the cooking shows so let’s start cooking...

Spaghetti in red wine : It’s very similar to normal spaghetti but instead of cooking it until ‘al dente’ in water I cooked it in a mix of water and red wine. If you want to be more ‘adventurous’ then use only red wine !!!

Ingredients: Spaghetti ( 500 gms); Onion ( finely chopped) - 1 medium; Garlic cloves ( finely chopped) - 5; Parmigiano-Reggiano - 50 gms; Cream cheese - 1 small bottle( 50 gms); Broad beans ( peeled and boiled) - 50 gms; Red wine - 1 bottle ; Chicken ( diced) - 200 gms; Olive oil for frying the chicken; Rosemary and basil leaves as per your preference; Salt and black pepper as per taste.

You can always increase your cheese proportions based on how rich you want your dish to be but don’t forget to run the next day.

Steps:

i. We need to cook the pasta ‘al dente’. This means that it should be form to the teeth; not gooey. Best way to check that is to see that pasta doesn’t stick to the walls but that’s too messy . Easier way is to eat few after 10-12 minutes of boiling. Ideally it takes 12-15 minutes to be ‘al dente’ .

ii. Cook the pasta with 4 litres of water and 1 litre of red wine.

iii. While the pasta is cooking, sauté the chicken pieces in olive oil on medium flame.

iv. After 2-3 minutes add the onion and garlic and saute it at low flame. Make sure that they don’t burn. Add salt and black pepper as per taste.

v. Once the chicken starts getting golden brown turn the flame to low.Keep stirring to avoid any burning.

vi. Check if your pasta is ready. If yes, put the pasta over the saute chicken and turn on the flame.

vii. Add cream cheese and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano over the spaghetti.

viii. Add the beans and rosemary leaves and mix well so that the cheese melts properly.

Garnish it with some fresh basil leaves and grated cheese and enjoy with red wine!!!

Ice cream with red wine sauce: To be honest had some wine left so made a quick sauce to pour some home-made ice cream. It tasted even better than cream with hot chocolate sauce!!! Super easy to make. Will try one day with scotch or vodka 📷:D 📷:D

Ingredients: Red wine - 100 ml; Basil leaves - 6; Cinnamon stick - 3; Nutmeg powder - 1 pinch; Sugar - 1 tea spoon; Black peppercorns ( crushed) - 10; Orange zest - 1 table spoon

Steps:

i. Mix all the ingredients in a sauce pan and heat for 5-10 minutes. Ensure nothing gets burned.

ii. Steep the mixture and let it cool for a bit.That’s it!!!

Serve with any ice cream/gelato and enjoy!!! I used cheesecake ice cream but any flavour will do.